Ayukta officials’ surprise checks at hospitals expose many flaws

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru

Karnataka Lokayukta officials recently made surprise visits to hospitals run by the State Government and the BBMP in Bengaluru, and flagged many issues related to their functioning.

Eleven teams formed by the Lokayukta visited a total of 21 hospitals in two days and they found that these hospitals face a shortage of medical supplies and a host of infrastructural problems.

Medical waste was reportedly not being managed in many of the hospitals. The overall hygiene of the hospitals, including toilets, was found to be very poor.

In one of the hospital complexes they found that though the building was barely five years old, the roofs were leaking and the structure had developed cracks.

The Intensive Care Units at Jayanagar General Hospital have been lying unused as the required professionals to operate the state-of-the-art equipment were lacking.

 The officials noted that all hospitals lacked adequate personnel to attend the patients. As noted by Lokayukta Justice B Patil, hundreds of posts were vacant in the hospitals. He said that cases would be registered against those responsible for the shortcomings and also against the Health Department.

 The teams also spotted errors in the documentation of payments and other processes including medicine distribution.

 Victoria Hospital, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Vani Vilas Hospital, KC General Hospital, Babu Jagjivanram Memorial Hospital, Palace Guttahalli Maternity Home and Jayanagar General Hospital were some of the facilities inspected by the Lokayukta teams